The South Korea Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Science and ICT have launched a joint project to broaden blockchain-based payment infrastructure built around deposit tokens. The initiative is intended to extend the Bank of Korea’s Project Hangang deposit token testing from institutional central bank digital currency pilots into everyday private-sector payments, while also creating a path for use in government funds management. The KRW 9.6 billion project was selected under the 2026 Blockchain Innovation Leading Project and will be run as a private consortium led by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, with nine commercial banks, eight payment service providers and two large demand-side participants. The model links existing payment infrastructure, including current merchant terminals and online payment networks, with Project Hangang, so users would pay through bank deposit token wallet apps without requiring merchants to replace payment devices. A physical card option is also under review. The authorities said the framework is designed to improve settlement speed and efficiency and reduce payment fees for small and micro merchants. The Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to apply deposit tokens in a pilot for official business expenses and, for broader use across treasury disbursements, to develop a treasury management model linked to dBrain in coordination with other fiscal bodies. The release also said blockchain-based controls could be used in public finance to attach policy conditions to funds and strengthen execution tracking to help prevent misuse.

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